


Fortis

by Spectral_Aspen



Series: Fortis atque fidelis a te pro te [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Dark Magic, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Headcanon, Magic, Magic Theory, Pre-Canon, Worldbuilding, black magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 04:37:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16110950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spectral_Aspen/pseuds/Spectral_Aspen
Summary: Claudia still remembers her younger self trying to reconcile her mother’s and father’s views on the seventh type of magic.





	Fortis

**Author's Note:**

> This is 100% headcanon and speculation, though I like to think it's pretty clever.
> 
> I am aware that the show's writers apparently have loads of backstory cooked up, and that this is probably going to be indefinitely headcanon, but I liked the idea and wanted to share.

In her earliest memories Claudia remembers looking up to her mother, both figuratively and literally. The woman was powerful, intelligent, and could call on magic with beautiful ease. Viren had been drawn to her for her competence, not her beauty (though she had that in spades too). 

Soren was the one who got her hair, Claudia took after their father instead. 

There were a lot of things Claudia received from their father that Soren did not.

One thing that always stuck with Claudia was her mother’s view of Magic. She and father taught Claudia about the original six Primal Sources, but while father would smile in a way that even a young Claudia knew was slightly _off_ and talk about how practical it was their mother would simply shake her head and smile. Every so often mother would pull Claudia and Soren to her workshop and lock the door, casting careful privacy spells all around the room before settling down to give them a variation of her most important and dangerous lecture.

“What people fail to understand, my dear,” she would say in her gentle and soft voice, brushing a loose strand of hair behind Claudia’s ear, “is that what most people call Black Magic is actually the opposite. Every type of Magic has its source, my child. The sun, moon, stars, earth, sky, and ocean are the six sources that most favour, especially those in Xadia. The seventh, however, is special.” Mother would always pause here and look around, as if to check that father wasn’t within earshot. 

“Life, my dear, is the seventh source.”

Claudia still remembers her younger self trying to reconcile her mother’s and father’s views on the seventh type of magic.

“The mage who first discovered the seventh type of magic used it for terrible things. He took and took and took and never gave back any of the life that he used.” Soren would always drift off around this part, as if learning the wonders of magic was somehow boring. “When used properly, like I do to heal, what most call Black Magic can be more accurately described as Life Magic. Mages take energy from the Primal Sources, but because those sources are without life as we see it in humans and elves and dragons and other creatures, most fail to realize that the way we draw upon life is the same as the way we draw upon those six other sources.” 

Here she usually smiled before standing to carefully pull out the amazing orb; the flickering and crackling primal stone. “This stone,” she said reverently, carefully placing the smooth ball in Claudia’s tiny hands while Soren dozed, “holds all the power of one of the strongest storms to ever grace our world. It is practically limitless. People, elves, magical creatures,” she always poked Soren and Claudia right between the eyes here, and Claudia would giggle when her brother flailed awake, “we aren’t limitless like the stone is. When too much of our life is drawn from us we die, and that scares people. Magical creatures are special because they have their own life energy plus whatever magical energy they have. The first Black Mage targeted them because they had twice as much energy as non-magical beings.”

Mother always looked sad when reaching this part of the lecture. “If more humans had used Life Magic to help others then we wouldn’t have been banished from Xadia, and we could have helped make this world a much better place. Instead the Black Mage was greedy, and he taught other greedy people his magic, and so humans took and took and were punished for their greed.” Mother would look around again, expression wary but determined. “The elves and dragons were wise to banish us, my dears,” Mother would always whisper, before straightening up and speaking normally again. “But I want you to grow up better than those old Mages, I want you to care for each other and strive to be honourable and courageous.” 

Mother would very gently take back the primal stone and place it in a safe place before turning back to them, and she would wrap up Soren and Claudia in a wonderful warm hug that smelled like the herbs that infused the very stones of her workshop and those in the healing halls.

“Fight for each other, no matter what, my dears. The world is dangerous, and full of people who are greedy and cruel.” She would hug them tighter, and Claudia always wanted to complain that she couldn’t breath, but something always stopped her from doing so. “Fill yourselves with Life, my dears, not with darkness.”

But mother was gone, now. Father and Soren were left, but father was acting stranger and stranger with each passing moon. It was hard to see, difficult to pick out the way that he would scowl at certain things when he hid it so well, but Claudia could see it.

She just ignored it.

Soren was the same as ever, and Claudia held their mother’s words close to her heart at all times. Claudia always tried to be nice, and fair; to be better than those who came before. It was hard, especially when she could easily see from their father’s point of view as well as their mother’s. 

In the end, though, Claudia decided that she would only be truly greedy for those she loved. 

Father could handle himself, but she would do what she had to for him.

King Harrow, Prince Callum, and Prinze Ezran were good friends, and she would do a fair bit for them because of duty and out of fondness, but they too had father to watch over them.

But Soren? Father was always distant from him like he never was with Claudia, because he had a hard time understanding why his only son didn’t view magic like the rest of the family did. Claudia didn’t care about that, though. Soren was her brother, and he was strong physically like she could never be, but she was strong in magic like he could never be. 

She would protect Soren with not just her own life, but with the life of whatever was necessary to keep him alive and well.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?
> 
> I intentionally didn't name Claudia & Soren's mother/Viren's wife because I couldn't find her name anywhere.


End file.
